Posts by Keith

I think that unfair treatment and corrections would push the dog to submission before anything....I think a lack of control/corrections would allow the dog to get away with a lot and then when the handler "got in the way" of him doing what he wanted he'd react aggressively to try and get what he wants by intimidating the handler an making him back off...

I've thought about that for some time now and as it would be ideal to have someone else do it I'm often reminded of words from the guy who I first started learning from...he has been training dogs for about 40 years now and he always told me "you can work your own dogs...it's like a dance with your dog"....

I have not owned a lot of dogs but out of the ones I've had it's been mixed....I've had both really strong females and really strong males. one thing i've noticed from those is i did butt heads more with the males then the females and the females seemed more willing to please but like i said I haven't been doing it long enough to say it's a male/female thing....

If I had a female that could/would work my dog I would do it because of some trends of where I'm living at.....One of my buddies that I work with was ditched by some guys he went out with downtown so while he was trying to find a phone to use(not sure why he didn't have his cell on him) a van full of women pulled up pointed guns at him got out and took his wallet etc and took off. There has been a few other instances like that but that's just one that happened to someone I know...not saying this happens all the time but I wouldn't have a problem having a female work my dog.

Hey Steve sorry to keep you waiting on the vids of my females but they are young and weren't ready for the work yet. I've been keeping them back tied and letting them watch and here's a short clip of one of them from today she's finally starting to mature and come out more...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaEeuxN_ABI

I love all dogs and I have a dobe right now I've never had a rott but if you are big on visual deterents those are two of the best in my opinion....the dog that really has me though is the dutch shepherd. I like the smaller more agile dogs that have endurance and they constantly have lots of energy and want to work! They also are very smart and easy to train and love to please, but so do a lot of other dogs too....

I like this topic....It's interesting to see all the different thoughts on it...I'd first like to say for the person who said that for a dog to bite a man all it really needs is teeth...IMO genetics has a lot to do with it too....if the parents have weak nerves than more than likely so is the pup and it's going to run before it bites and if it does bite it's going to be out of fear and all you're gonna get is a bite with the front teeth and it's not going to hold on....now as far as bite development personally I do this from the time they are pups....I keep building their prey from an early age because I want a dog that will run any amount of distance to get the "prey" or someone that just stole my wallet...also the idea of tug with the dog is to build a bond and also it's not ass much about them getting a reward (rag tug whatever) as it is the reward being playing tug with me...this helps with obedience so that I can do less compulsion and more reward...I do also agree with Dan though in the dog has it or it doesn't but I've seen some dogs where nothing was done with them at all and they lost a lot of the prey drive and wouldn't bite a sleeve or rag. They would come out at the end of the line aggressively and bite at the bare arms etc but wouldn't bite a sleeve...now do you really know if he would bite and hold on for real? possibly but you'll never know for sure.....would he be a deterrent? absolutely but I'm not going to trust that he'd get the job done...also another reason for prey drive and bite development is to switch out what the dog bites on so that he doesn't just get use to one thing...ie if you only use a rag....I use everything to get them used to all sorts of biting surfaces...jute, leather everything....Now having said that yes a super dog probably wouldn't care but some good dogs need conditioned to certain stuff. The more you get them conditioned to everything the less you worry about that stuff...

DanE and Steve, Thanks and the reason for him edging out like that was a couple reasons...one was to get him use to not just doing the bark and hold in a blind but also he was have a hard time centering himself right in front of the decoy and when he would move slowly he would center himself and then after he'd get a bite he'd slide back to the center of the blind so that he was centered again and slip the sleeve...Steve I got that male from Chris becher out of Wisconsin. out of the two litters that I've seen of his all the pups have been like this male...My females that I've got one has been out of aachen dutch shepherds in OK(I've worked her dogs and they are nice..especially the females she has) and the other female I got from a guy out of atlanta...here's a video of him at 4 1/2 months...he matured very fast in his work at an early age which really surprised me.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgOZ3NrcGUk

Another thing that I've done and I do with pups as well to teach them is I will either put them in a crate right behind two experience dogs or back tie them in between the two and let them watch as I agitate the two others.....

I agree with not barking being a problem but you have to start somewhere with getting him to bark. with that rott it started out as that and then the more we did it the more he figured out that he had to bark in order to get a bite and the barking became more and more pronounced and combined with a little pressure he turned it up even more and learned that when his owner said watch him he had to bark and barked with aggression and stayed out at the end of the leash...